College Students' Spontaneous Self-Concept

Cross-cultural comparisons of the self-concept have typically used structured inventories created in the United States. Importing and using such methodology may prevent culturally unique dimensions and contents from appearing. To overcome this problem, the Twenty Statements Test was administered to university students in Japan, the United States, and Hong Kong to assess cultural influences on the self-concept assessed from this open-ended inventory. Numerous cultural differences were found in the frequency of categories and subcategories used for self-statements and in the level of self-esteem. These differences were related to previous research on the self-concept, to socialization practices, and to central concerns in these cultural groups.